Jeffrey Epstein was known as a successful money manager and bon vivant long before his appetite for underage girls surfaced. Even after his first conviction in Florida he was still considered to possess some combination of considerable skill and luck at money-management. That cachet attracted people to him, people now rightly or wrongly suffering damage to their reputations and careers.
I write not to defend Epstein, or his one-time friends and acquaintances, they are well and truly screwed. The millions of pages of Epstein documents probably harbor several more career-ending revelations.
I write instead to wonder how many people in lofty positions of power and influence are now anxious lest one of their own associates might harbor a secret vice or fetish that could similarly damage them? A case like Epstein’s could reduce interpersonal trust and comradeship for a whole generation of movers and shakers.
Perhaps that anxiety is part of the price of power and visibility.
